Three Cybersecurity Issues for Businesses to Prepare For

Running a business of any size comes with more than its fair share of risks, particularly if that business is on the smaller side. One major risk factor is the prospect of cybercrime and the impact it can have on a business. Let’s look at how this particular risk can influence the challenges that businesses must now contend with.

Compliance Fatigue

There should be no question that cybersecurity is an essential consideration… but acknowledging this as fact is much different than living up to it. The list of compliance standards, regulations, and other assorted requirements seems to grow lengthier each day. This makes it much simpler for a business to just give up after a point and just coast along on their complacency.

Of course, the spotty enforcement of many of these requirements isn’t exactly a great motivator to comply, either, with the rare contradiction between different regulations only complicating the issue further.

Regardless, it is important to keep in mind that such standards are in place for a reason—the protection of businesses and the customers who do business with them—meaning that these rules must be complied with. To keep it in perspective, the expenses that are required to keep up with these standards are far less than the fines that noncompliance would almost assuredly bring a business.

Misconfigured Cloud Environments

The cloud has seen massive growth in recent years, with more and more cloud-based tools and technologies being introduced all the time. Having said that, the workforce tasked with maintaining these all-important cloud platforms has not matched this growth.

Exacerbating this issue, Gartner estimates that 95 percent of public cloud security failures are due to the actions of their customers, not so much the platform’s providers. Misconfiguring the cloud environment—or even a standalone cloud solution—can lead to some considerable security issues, making data breaches and cost overruns far more likely.

Mobile Malware Increases and Phishing Attacks

Many threats have seen some significant upticks, like the rise in the use of mobile malware. This can be seen as a direct result of the increased reliance that many have in their mobile device—particularly in terms of accessing banking applications and the like.

On top of these threats, phishing has remained a severe threat to businesses and private users everywhere. Through social engineering, a cybercriminal will convince a member of your team into providing them with something they want (whether that’s data, access credentials, or some other sensitive information) relying on deception, naivete, and fear tactics to get what they want. Preventing this kind of data breach will require you to actively train your team members to recognize such attempts and respond to them in a security-conscious way.

Walsh IT Group can help with all these considerations, as well as many more means of reinforcing your organizational cybersecurity. Learn more about what we can offer you by calling (832) 295-1445 today.